You want to know how marijuana is going to get legalized?  It’s going to happen on the state and local level; and we have California and their defiance of federal law to thank for starting the localization movement.  The federal government, which has become nothing more than a finely tuned group of organized criminals, makes far too much on marijuana being illegal that we should just give up hope of them ever legalizing it–at most they’ll legalize medicinal marijuana, even though it looks like the pharmaceutical companies will get to push their THC pills on everyone before that happens.  But given all the fines and fees that the government pulls in from every pothead cuffed and processed, it makes zero sense to sit back and hope the aliens in Congress will ever let common sense override greed and tradition.  Besides, on the local level people actually have the ability to affect change. Continue Reading

Since marijuana is always a popular subject, here is a historical look at marijuana’s illegalization.  Enjoy, pass it along, comment.

The Weed Controversy

Once the 1930s rolled around, and the prohibition of alcohol had failed tremendously, there was a feeling of defeat in most prohibitionists’ minds.  One of the jaded prohibitionists, Harry J. Anslinger, quickly found himself at the forefront of yet another prohibition movement in the United States.  During the latter years of alcohol prohibition, many Southwestern states were pushing for a law against marijuana as a means to persecute the Mexican immigrants who offered cheap labor during the Depression.

In response to the public’s outcry for action, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) was founded in 1930 as an agency of the United States Department of Treasury.  Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, felt his nephew-in-law, Harry J. Anslinger, was the perfect candidate for the job of FBN commissioner.  While Anslinger was upset over the failure of the prohibition of alcohol, the cries for action against marijuana enabled Anslinger to focus his attention on a new scapegoat substance: Marijuana. Continue Reading